Wealthy nations including Canada, Australia , Germany, and the United Kingdom continue to oppose the TRIPS waiver (more…)
Category: Health
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A tale of two cities in the same pandemic.
The eastern suburbs of Sydney became the seeding event for Delta’s entry to Australia. It was nurtured by a driver transferring infected airline personnel to quarantine at the nearby Kingsford Smith airport. (more…)
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Making good use of the AstraZeneca in which we are ‘awash’
Thanks to the Delta variant, the Covid-19 pandemic is now a national crisis. If the vaccine roll-out can find both the urgency and the administrative efficiency required, the immediate challenge stemming from an excess supply of AstraZeneca and an acute shortage of Pfizer can be met. While steps are being taken to divert Pfizer from second doses to first, the large numbers who are waiting for the second AstraZeneca can be invited to have their second after less than 12 weeks have elapsed.
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Lockdown protesters march across the flat earth
Once more unto the breach of commonsense and science, they come. The anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. Blinded by ignorance and feverish self-righteousness, it’s a wonder they don’t march off the edge of the flat earth.
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The right answer to Jack’s question can help use all that AstraZeneca
Jack1 from Bathurst phoned into Life Matters this week. He thought to help the Covid vaccine situation by bringing forward his second AstraZeneca jab. But no one could tell him what effect that would have on the efficacy of his jabs. (more…)
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We can help restore confidence in the AZ vaccine
Public policy and personal reticence due to side effects continue to impede the use of Australia’s available and effective AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine at a time when it is most needed, the now critical 6 months before sufficient supplies of alternate vaccines can deliver the desired 80% vaccination rate required to end the need for crippling lockdowns. (more…)
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Data hesitancy: class, race, ethnicity and geography in the viral dangers of Sydney
In Sydney an outbreak that started in the east, under lax surveillance and permissive admonitions poorly policed, has spread to the west where it has taken on draconian, oppressive and destructive forms in both its virology and its sociology. (more…)
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Is AstraZeneca the Britney Spears of COVID vaccines?
In the UK the AstraZeneca vaccine is hailed as a public health success story. Professor Sarah Gilbert, the Oxford University scientist who led its development, was created a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and received a spontaneous standing ovation from the crowd at Wimbledon.But not in Australia. (more…)
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Poor leadership, irresponsible media and a clever virus
Despite this being the most scientific of all ages, capable of producing highly effective vaccines a year after the SARS-COV-2 virus was identified ( Russian scientists actually achieved this in six months), poor leadership, ignorance, stubbornness and irresponsible media, (broadcast and social), are making this pandemic much worse than it needs to be.
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Covid 19 has revealed the weaknesses but also the importance of globalisation.
If enough of us ever get vaccinated to get over the immediate emergency, it will be useful to take time to reflect on the medium-term implications of the global pandemic for the governance of Australia and the world. There is much to be done and much we can learn.
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Wanting a social marketing campaign on Covid and getting a band aid instead
There is one thing almost everybody commenting about Australia’s poor vaccine roll out agrees with – the need for an advertising campaign. (more…)
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Why do some wealthy people leave money on the table by not buying private hospital insurance?
One in three high-income earners choose not to take out private hospital insurance, even though they could save money by avoiding the Medicare Levy Surcharge. A reason behind this decision is that these individuals are happy to use public hospitals. This suggests that people may be unaware that they are being financially penalised on their taxes, or that the incentives for purchasing private insurance are not working. (more…)
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Russia’s vaccine curse
The Sputnik V vaccine was an incredible achievement for Russian science. The measure of success, however, will depend on the ability to vaccinate a majority of the Russian population in order to reach herd immunity. (more…)
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The NSW ‘lockdown’ that isn’t while putting business before people.
A ‘lockdown’ strategy that does not involve lockdown, a vaccine distribution policy that is dangerously inconsistent and covid testing facilities that cannot meet the demand generated by public health orders, are but some of the problems responsible for the continuing explosion of COVID-19 cases in Sydney (more…)
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It’s the vaccine rollout, stupid!
Bill Clinton certainly had a feel for what ‘worked’ in getting himself elected, and then re-elected. He knew that the electorate had one major concern, and all the other matters were just background noise. Cue Scott Morrison and his Government. The vaccine rollout, period. Fix that, and you are home. No more lockdowns, no more businesses going broke, no more daily press conferences, obsessively watching numbers of infections. (more…)
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Covid 2021 – Lessons from Dunkirk about unused resources. Think pharmacies
With the Covid Vaccination rollout in danger of stalling 18 months into the program, it is time to reconsider what underutilised Australian resources can be used to accelerate the rollout process. (more…)
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‘Humanity Must Stand Together’: Top Medical Ethicists Demand Vaccine Patent Waivers
Two medical ethicists are the latest to argue that the World Trade Organization must lift patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines to save lives both in the Global South, where inoculations against the virus are lagging, and in wealthy countries which is likely to face future infectious disease outbreaks if they continue hoarding the supplies needed to fight the current public health crisis.
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Fear God, not the pandemic in Indonesia.
July 20 will be a big day in Indonesia. It marks the end of more than two weeks of lockdown, and it’s Bloody Tuesday – Idul Adha, the feast of the sacrifice. This year participants may become victims. (more…)
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We can complete a full mRNA rollout by end of 2021. Here’s the plan
How many attempts do we give Scott Morrison to fix the ongoing Covid quarantine and vaccine rollout debacle? There have been mistakes, holdups with vaccine deliveries and unforeseen complications, but it is possible to develop a plan to get us out of the turmoil he has inflicted upon us, and do it by the end of 2021! (more…)
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When should mandatory vaccination be on the agenda?
Back in August 2020, when announcing that Australia had negotiated a deal to procure supplies of coronavirus vaccines, the Prime Minister was quizzed by Melbourne radio commentator Neil Mitchell about whether vaccination should be compulsory. The PM hedged his bets – he would ‘expect it to be as mandatory as you can possibly make [it]’. Fast forward almost year and national cabinet recently started down the compulsion path – mandating vaccinations for residential aged care workers.
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Ageing is not a lifestyle choice:
Frail older people and their family carers are in the hands of evidence free government zealots favouring market solutions to aged care provision and consumer lobbyists. (more…)
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AstraZeneca vaccine: let young people choose for themselves
Choosing the AstraZeneca vaccine involves weighing up the risks and benefits. Young people weigh these differently from older generations, and should be allowed to make informed decisions for themselves. (more…)
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Lockdown’s compulsory in Indonesia – if you like
Luhut Binsar Panjaitan doesn’t read Pearls & Irritations. That’s obvious because the former general and Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s Mr Fixit alleged he was blindsided by the latest tsunami of Covid 19.
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The chaotic incompetence of our roll out of the Covid vaccines? Part 2
Controversy characterises the current, somewhat heated, discussions about how to use the vaccines available to us. While we hope to eventually employ at least four effective vaccines at the moment our choice is limited to one of two, the AstraZenica vaccine which we can manufacture here and the Pfizer vaccine which we need to import. (more…)
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The chaotic incompetence of our roll out of the Covid vaccines? Part 1
Who would have thought that a well educated and scientifically sophisticated nation like ours would find itself dead last among OECD countries when the percentages of citizens fully vaccinated in each country are examined. (more…)
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National Cabinet is not to blame, unless you ask the State Governments
There has been a subtle but nevertheless significant shift in the operation of the National Cabinet. It reflects the growing evidence that Prime Minister Scott Morrison recognises he is no longer in control of Australia’s response to the Covid pandemic and that many people are questioning his increasingly inept performance. (more…)
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Australian Government silent on CSL, Red Cross contaminated blood scandal; UK government accepts ‘moral responsibility’
The Government still refuses to apologise and offer financial support to the up to 20,000 victims of the contaminated blood scandal as recommended 17 years ago by a Senate Committee. Labor has acknowledged the “historic injustice” but says it can’t do anything. Is it because CSL, the darling of Australia’s business community, lies at the heart of the scandal? (more…)
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Can we have confidence in the Therapeutic Goods Administration?
Two recent decisions by the TGA have further reduced the confidence that health professionals and consumers have in the regulation of complementary medicines. The first was allowing complementary medicines as a reward for people vaccinated against COVID-19. The second was approving a TGA assessed (Aust L(A)) application for Caruso’s Prostate EZE Max.
